UPDATE 2:  As of 6:43 p.m. Cleco has announced that it has restored power to 78 percent of the nearly 20,000 customers who experienced outages following severe thunderstorms Sunday in its central and southern service territory.

“Crews have been working around the clock since the storms hit. We had a lot of damage to our system, including broken poles and downed wire,” said James Lass, General Manager of Distribution Operations and Emergency Management. “While our crews are making progress, some customers will remain without power through the night.”

Currently, 5,700 customers are without power. Cleco expects to restore power to 3,100 customers tonight and anticipates the remaining 2,600 customers will be restored by Monday afternoon.

Customers count for overnight outages:

Rapides Parish 20 customers

Grant Parish 60 customers

Evangeline Parish (Ville Platte) 2,500 customers

Iberia Parish 20

UPDATE: Pineville, La.– Cleco had appoximately 20,000 customers with power outages due to storms moving  throughout Cleco’s service territory this morning.

Cleco currently has about 12,000 customers without power.

“All available Cleco line crews and an additional 115 contractor crews from Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas have been mobilized to begin restoration efforts,” said James Lass, general manager of distribution operations and emergency management.

ORIGINAL: CLECO is reporting many power outages across Acadiana after the early Sunday storms.

Cleco crews are working to clear debris and restore power, quickly and safely. At 9 a.m. we are reporting about 19,000 customers without power. The hardest hit parishes are Avoyelles (1,338 customers without power), Allen (1,823), Evangeline (6,597), Iberia (6,010), Rapides (823) and St. Landry (1,555).

Cleco says they are receiving reports of fallen trees and limbs along with downed power lines. Please do NOT try to clear debris around power lines. Treat all downed power lines as energized. Call 911 or Cleco to report a dangerous situation.

For more stories like this that matter to you, click here to download the News 10 app for free.

Watch live newscasts, get breaking news and sign up for push alerts – download now